Expression.Equal Method (Expression, Expression)
[ This article is for Windows Phone 8 developers. If you’re developing for Windows 10, see the latest documentation. ]
Creates a BinaryExpression that represents an equality comparison.
Assembly: System.Core (in System.Core.dll)
'Declaration Public Shared Function Equal ( _ left As Expression, _ right As Expression _ ) As BinaryExpression
Parameters
- left
- Type: System.Linq.Expressions.Expression
An Expression to set the Left property equal to.
- right
- Type: System.Linq.Expressions.Expression
An Expression to set the Right property equal to.
Return Value
Type: System.Linq.Expressions.BinaryExpressionA BinaryExpression that has the NodeType property equal to Equal and the Left and Right properties set to the specified values.
| Exception | Condition |
|---|---|
| ArgumentNullException | left or right is Nothing. |
| InvalidOperationException | The equality operator is not defined for left.Type and right.Type. |
The resulting BinaryExpression has the Method property set to the implementing method. The Type property is set to the type of the node. If the node is lifted, the IsLifted property is true. Otherwise, it is false. The IsLiftedToNull property is always false. The following information describes the implementing method, the node type, and whether a node is lifted.
Implementing Method
The following rules determine the implementing method for the operation:
If the Type property of either left or right represents a user-defined type that overloads the equality operator, the MethodInfo that represents that method is the implementing method.
Otherwise, the implementing method is Nothing.
Node Type and Lifted versus Non-Lifted
If the implementing method is not Nothing:
If left.Type and right.Type are assignable to the corresponding argument types of the implementing method, the node is not lifted. The type of the node is the return type of the implementing method.
If the following two conditions are satisfied, the node is lifted and the type of the node is Boolean:
left.Type and right.Type are both value types of which at least one is nullable and the corresponding non-nullable types are equal to the corresponding argument types of the implementing method.
The return type of the implementing method is Boolean.
If the implementing method is Nothing:
The following code example shows how to create an expression that checks whether the values of its two arguments are equal.
' Add the following directive to your file: ' Imports System.Linq.Expressions ' This expression compares the values of its two arguments. ' Both arguments must be of the same type. Dim equalExpr As Expression = Expression.Equal( Expression.Constant(42), Expression.Constant(45) ) ' Print the expression. outputBlock.Text &= equalExpr.ToString() & vbCrLf ' The following statement first creates an expression tree, ' then compiles it, and then executes it. outputBlock.Text &= Expression.Lambda(Of Func(Of Boolean))(equalExpr).Compile()() & vbCrLf ' This code example produces the following output: ' ' (42 == 45) ' False